The Downtown Mission in Windsor is joining 80 groups across Canada in calling on the federal government for help to eradicate poverty.
Volunteers on Tuesday handed out lunch bags for the 5th annual ‘Chew on This’ campaign.
The bags included an apple, and people were asked to sign a petition calling on Ottawa to develop a national poverty strategy that looks at health, food, jobs, income, housing and childhood care.
The bags also included postcards that stated one-in-eight Canadian households struggle to put food on the table.
The Downtown Mission says that number is closer to one-in-four in Windsor, according to a 2011 Canadian household survey.
“People don’t choose to be on social assistance, people don’t choose to come into the Downtown Mission for their meals, people are doing this because we don’t have an adequate safety net” says Adam Vasey, the Downtown Mission’s director of advocacy, outreach and education.
“It’s one thing to promise action on poverty, but another to actually commit the necessary resources” says Vasey.
Vasey adds the Mission’s new shelter on Ouellette Avenue is full every night.
